Google’s Project Ara: Who Are Real Targets?

Call it a Lego phone, a modular phone, a DYI phone, or a totally customizable phone. Google's Project Ara is breaking a smartphone into modular pieces and letting people build custom phones.

MADISON, Wis. — Google is betting on the untested but popular Maker Movement and trusting that its build-your-own-phone project will appeal to those of us who have little say in how smartphones are made, what they do, and how they look. Google apparently believes that the project will entice 6 billion people into the smartphone fold.

Well, in the words of the smartphone prophet Buddy Holly, that'll be the day.

The thing is, Buddy, that might be the day. As we've all learned in the technology world, you should never say no to whatever is new.

Google is moving forward with Project Ara, a modular smartphone initiative started more than a year ago by Google's Motorola Mobility group. The company is holding its first Ara Developers' Conference April 15-16 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

The project, originally described by Google, as doing "for hardware what the Android platform has done for software," is building an open hardware community around a modular Android smartphone platform.

Paul Eremenko, a Motorola Mobility veteran now running Project Ara, wrote in a Google blog post that it is inviting just about everyone in the electronics industry, "from major OEMs to innovative component suppliers to startups and new entrants into the mobile space," to its on-site event. "Non-developers and Ara enthusiasts" are invited to join via the live web stream.

Though Motorola Mobility's handset business is being sold to China's Lenovo, Project Ara has survived. It lives on as part of Google Advanced Technology and Projects, headed by Regina Dugan, the former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It turns out that Eremenko is also a DARPA alumnus.

Project Ara offers a smartphone in modular pieces.

Google says Project Ara is "designed exclusively for 6 billion people," but it's not clear who the real target is for the modular smartphone platform initiative.

Liberation from component vendors
Call it a Lego phone, a modular phone, a DYI phone, or a totally customizable phone. Project Ara is breaking a smartphone into modular pieces, giving people opportunity to build custom phones.

Time magazine, which conducted an extensive interview with members of the Project Ara team, called the platform something that "permits hot-swapping of modules, without requiring you to power down the phone -- which means that you could slide out the camera and replace it with a battery whenever you needed a little extra juice."

In essence, Google is pitching Project Ara as liberation from component vendors and hardware companies. "Rather than depending on a component maker's skill at landing contracts with big handset manufacturers, phone buyers would call the shots," Time reported.

That, however, might be an oversimplification designed to appeal to the DIY crowd.

If this ever takes off, the real upside may not be the modularity itself, as that'll have such a negative impact on efficiency and form factor and the user interface. But assuming they get it into a somewhat tolerable range, the really interesting part will be analyzing the which modules get developed, which modules get used the most, and which ones don't really get used all that much.

From that, the ultimate efficienty and usable smartphone can be developed based on what users really do or choose to have and use on their device. From features to form factor. This analysis really fits with Google's 'analyze this' approach.

I really can't see this going anywhere. Google is great about trying out interesting concepts and seeing where they go. I wouldn't put any weight in their investment (remember google wave? Feedburner?).

It is a cool idea and a fun concept, but the "cons" column is so much longer than the "pros" column that it is hard to even fathom this concept going into production.

Agreed, this may be something down the line, but for now its more of a curiosity, more of an interesting little investment from Google. They are a big enough company they can spread out and try different things with minimal risk. I wouldn't place too much of an emphasis on this latest intiiative from Google.

Another question to ask is "why would a vendor put the effort into creating a module for Ara?" or rather "who will be making these modules?"

A vendor can sell a camera to many many product creators. However, if the vendor creates a camera module for Ara, it can only be used on the Ara market. Is google to going to make these extra modules? They're the only ones with incentive.

I must be the odd man out in this conversation but I like the whole concept of modularity: Heathkits were cool. Separates in the audio industry was even better. I helped rebuild a VW dune buggy and learned immensely from the process. Building your own computer from components/hw was satisfying. Gamers created a whole cottage industry and benefits of high end computer parts are still with us but almost on its last leg. Even Arduino lovers can't be wrong. Along the same lines, instead of the current throw-away smartphones that fill entire dumps, being able to upgrade incrementally, a la Project Ara, sounds nice but something tells me it will not get to a maturation state. And too bad for that!

Microsoft and Intel set down the specification for hardware for years. Companies like Dell, Lenovo and all the other PC clone makers were building and packaging reference designs. Not to say that is not a difficult and complex buisness to manage.

This sounds very similar. Here are the starting building blocks for Android prototypes. Now that most of the R and D is done, package it up and sell it cheap. That spreads the Android app store, and keeps the customer happy. No one wants a black eye in the market because new Android software is running on an underpowered, incompatible hardware platform.

But then, it's hard to imagine that this is being pitched at hardware suppliers (ODMs) who have never made smartphones before but want to make a ton of it. For that, companies like MediaTek, Spreadtrum and others already offer a very comprehensive reference design (or what they call "turnkey systems.")

One thing is clear, though. The fact Google is experimenting with this modular approach on the Android smartphone platform goes to show how mature smartphones have become as a consumer product.

Junko, it is a bit odd that Google has focused this solely toward smartphones. When you factor in certifications and software compatibility, this just isn't a viable solution for a usable smartphone. However, I would agree that it does make an innovative development platform for IoT and embedded applications.